Incredible Mason Bee: Mason Bee, #1

By Steven Scanlan and Catherine Scanlan

Do you want to keep mason bees in your garden? Do you want to pollinate your flowers and fruits while having fun doing so? Then read on.....Mason bees are fun to keep and make a difference in pollination of your gardens, farms, and community spaces. The Incredible Mason Bee book teaches you about these bees, their management, and how to make your own mason bee house in your own garden to attract these delightful insects. Includes useful information about common issues and challenges with mason bee houses and reassurance as to the safety of keeping mason bees. The mason bee is more productive in pollinating your garden than honeybees. Keeping these bees is fun and educational for children and adults alike. Taking less than 6 hours per year to manage, mason bees are the ultimate backyard-friendly bee, essential in the pollination of early flowering fruit trees, vegetables, and flowers. Mason beekeeping is a hobby for all ages, it is safe, engaging, interesting, and instrumental in responsibly maintaining and sustaining the ecosystem. The book introduces you to the different types of house, the benefits and challenges of each, and the pests that you may encounter as you build out your mason bee community. It is informative, supportive, and engaging for all ages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steven Scanlan
• Release date: Apr 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781989681084

Steven Scanlan

My writing career began when my middle daughter asked me to document the bedtime stories that I told them when they were younger. ​I have been a storyteller since I was young, exaggerating and expanding on my story to improve its telling. This has led to my ability to encourage people to listen. From that small beginning, I have found my head full of stories. These stories are now being written for the enjoyment of young people everywhere.

Book preview

The Incredible Mason Bee book

Written by

Steven and Catherine Scanlan

Edition 1

The Incredible Mason Bee book

First Published in Duncan, Vancouver Island, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-989681-09-1

Text and Graphics, Copyright of Steven Scanlan, 2021

A Catalogue entry for the title and name of this book reside with the Canadian Registry of ISBN

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written agreement of Steven Scanlan.

ISLAND BOOKS

We dedicate this book to the memory of

Eugene Fleck

Gentleman, friend, scholar, and mason bee master.

Table of Contents

Preface

Our Story

Introduction

What is Pollination?

The Mason Bee

The Mason Bee Life Cycle

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

Types of Mason Bee Housing

Reed Houses

Advantages of Reed Houses

Concerns with Reed Houses

Paper Straw Houses

Advantages of Paper Straw Houses

Concerns with Paper Straw Houses

Drilled Hole Houses

Concerns with Drilled Hole Houses

Separable Tray Houses

Advantages of Separable Tray Houses

Concerns with Separable Tray Houses

Make Your Own Mason Bee House

How to Make a Reed House

How to Make a Paper Straw House

How to make a Drilled Hole House

The Beekeeper Calendar

Spring

Activity: Siting Your Mason Bee House (March-April)

Activity: Introducing the cocoons to the housing

Summer

Activity: Taking Down Your Mason Bee House (August)

Fall

Activity: Cleaning and Harvesting the Cocoons (October)

Winter

Chapter 7

Cleaning a Paper Straw House

Pests and Diseases

General Garden Pests

Pests from Spring to Fall

Pests During the Fall

Bee-Attracting Plants

Suggested Plantings

Plants and Flowers

Trees

Conclusion

References

Spring Calendar

Summer Calendar

Fall Calendar

Figures and Pictures

Preface

Think back to when you were younger. If you can remember the 1980s through to 2000, you may recall driving along the road for long distances and pulling over to get gas. Before you filled the gas tank, you may have grabbed a squeegee and sponged the windscreen to clear off the bugs, flies, bees, and other odd insects that accumulated there over the course of the journey. Amongst these splatters on the windscreen were some of the pollinators who worked at spreading pollen across trees and plants, and supported our gardens and farms with producing flowers, trees, fruits, and vegetables ( Figure 1 ).

A picture containing indoor, flower, plant Description automatically generated

Figure 1: A bumblebee pollinating a flower.

NOW CONSIDER THE LAST time you cleaned your windscreen. Can you remember? If you can, it was probably a special occasion and not the daily event it used to be.

During recent years, changes in farming practice and home garden maintenance has accelerated the destruction of pollinator populations. The main threats facing pollinators are habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation of safe areas to lay their eggs. As native vegetation is replaced by roadways, manicured lawns, crops and non-native gardens, pollinators lose the food and nesting sites that are necessary for their survival. i

Over recent years the world has introduced pesticides to kill destructive insects and protect our plants and crops. The consequence of these actions is we have accidentally damaged or killed important pollinators in the process of deployment. Farms utilize pesticides on a much larger scale than the average person—they spray enormous amounts across their land to increase yield, but inadvertently destroy the very insects they wish to encourage. 

Plant choice can also have a role in pollinator populations. Large swaths of plants that produce minimal pollen, such as grasses and some genetically modified flowers, force pollinators away from the garden. Changes in the development of modern farming techniques has reduced the frequency and complexity of hedgerows, such as the great plains of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, which have vast fields of grain-bearing plants covering the land with no boundaries or hedgerows between them. 

The destruction of hedgerow borders to the very edge of the field further reduce the number of free flowers, wildflowers, and other plants that pollinators depend upon, as well as insects crucial to sustaining the ecosystem. 

Pollinators are an important part of our garden and our lives; it is estimated that over 30% of all the food we eat are pollinated by these insectsii. If pollinators disappear, vegetation health drastically suffers; we would lose access to our favourite flowers, fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Plant-based items would also become less abundant. There would be a dramatic change in how we farm, what we eat and how we fare. 

The extent of the damage to pollinator populations is yet to